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> Results: X-Men Legends
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A dark figure crouches in the alley and a feral sneer curls his lip. A huge shadow passes over his position and you hear the sound of adamantium leaving its sheath. Time for a new X-Men adventure! This one crosses over into a new genre for the Uncanny X-Men, a role playing game, while holding true to its action-adventure roots. X-Men Legends is a game that really should have been made years ago. It requires teamwork and strategy along with those rather useful mutant powers.
While not perfect, this is really good. Using your mutant abilities has never been easier. You hold one button and then press an associated button for the power you want, consisting of a primary attack, secondary attack, and a status boosting ability. You also get a good sampling of Marvel's mutants including staples such as Gambit, Beast, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Storm along with some of the lesser seen characters like Colossus and Emma Frost, who are frequently missing from X-Men games.  X-Men Legends also requires you to use these heroes' greatest asset, team work. Once past the first level or so, you take four mutants into battle. Once in battle, you can change at will between them, combining powers for more powerful attacks. Your mutant abilities also can be used as tools. For example, Cyclops' signature eye beam can weld damaged structures, Iceman can produce ice bridges over certain gaps, and at other times, those with the power of flight can carry fellow mutants across gaps as well. Your allies also seem to have a shred of sense with fairly decent artificial intelligence. Keep an eye on them though. If your mutant gets defeated, you switch to the closest one and they may be two seconds away from getting beaten too. The environments are great. They include all kinds of walls, boxes, cars, and other assorted breakables. You can even toss someone through a wall. The game shines in the details, but those pesky details come right back to haunt you. You have control over the camera to some extent and it stays put and is easily adjusted. But unfortunately, it doesn't pan far enough out to catch all the action, meaning an ill-timed player change can leave you stranded on the wrong side of a wall. The aforementioned AI also has a problem with bunching up, causing traffic jams in doorways, and computer-controlled players to fall off of ledges. Speaking of falling off ledges, there is also a tiny bit of a problem with ﾑhit detection' for the walls. In one narrow corridor, I was destroying boxes for the health and energy packs, and they would disappear into the walls. On further investigation, it was clear they had bounced through the walls, where they stayed.  The graphics overall are average compared to other games. When the camera zooms in for meetings in the war room or cut scenes that happen in level, the tiny models don't expand very well. Their hands look like they have been stuffed into boxes for some reason. While not a fan of the cel-shading trend, it suits this game well, keeping the illusion of watching a comic book come to life. The voice over is patchy, not because of the actors, but because there is not voice over in all conversations. There are some name actors here too. Patrick Stewart reprises his role from the movies as Professor Xavier, Lou Diamond Phillips plays Forge, and Cree Summer voices Magma. Despite the bugs, AI and camera complaints, the game is very fun to play and it is the X-Men. It's maybe not the best X-Men game ever, but it's been a long time coming. 
As far as objectionable content, X-Men Legends follows a fairly typical X-Men story arc. A new mutant is discovered and recruited both by the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which leads to both factions fighting against each other in various situations. The load screens, which you'll be looking at for awhile, have artists' renditions of the X-Men, Brotherhood, and other characters, places and vehicles in the game, complete with their muscular and ample physiques. No one is wearing anything too revealing, aside from the fact that the uniforms are spandex and leather in the usual X-Men style.
The game is violent, and the ESRB includes blood as one of the qualifiers for the T rating. The blood in question is minimal. Once you reach a certain level, when Wolverine attacks someone, they will ﾑbleed' a little while, and the blood appears as red specks that shoot off the victim. You have to really be watching for it though. If you are comfortable with your kids reading the comics and watching the animated series or the movies, there is no reason for them not to play. Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "X-Men" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: X-Men Legends |
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